Donald Trump spent Friday morning telling his Twitter followers that the domestic terrorism being perpetrated against Democratic lawmakers, former presidents and heads of state, intelligence officers, newsrooms, and an anti-Trump celebrity was a hoax meant to slow the momentum of Republicans during the midterms.
Trump Thunders at Media for Smearing His Supporters after Bomb Scares https://t.co/Ggdhs9reY3 via @BreitbartNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2018
Once the terrorist was caught living in a van covered in pro-Trump stickers and was discovered to have attended Trump rallies, Trump’s conspiracy theories fell apart. As it became more and more clear that the perpetrator had been influenced by Trump and the pro-Trump, anti-leftist media, his narrative had to change.
Now, he’s infuriating his base by telling them that the media is unfairly characterizing the bomber as well as himself.
‘We have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me and the Republican party…political violence must never ever be allowed in America and I’ll do everything in my power to stop it. The media has a major role to play, whether they want to or not. They have a major role to play as far as tone, as far as everything. The media’s constant unfair coverage, deep hostility, and negative attacks only serve to drive people apart and to undermine healthy debate.’
In other words, Trump is angry over placing blame on anyone but the bomber for the attacks, so he’s blaming the media for them.
He also tried yet another lie on his supporters, who cheered.
‘We did not use that heinous attempt at mass murder for political gain, because that would have been the wrong thing to do.’
That isn’t at all true. While there have been many comparisons made by the right between the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise and the recent domestic terrorist incidents, there are many pieces to that comparison that Republicans aren’t mentioning.
For instance, Bernie Sanders never attacked Scalise by name on social media or anywhere else. He never told his base that Republicans were the “enemy of the people” bent on allowing foreign gang members into the country to rape and kill their children. He has never publicly befriended conspiracy theorists who tell his base that Republicans are running child sex trafficking rings out of non-existent basements in pizza restaurants, or that any of them have gotten away with murdering their detractors with the help of the FBI, CIA, and other federal government officials, and he certainly never told the American people that Republicans are chopping up babies and selling their body parts.
Bernie Sanders never did any of those things and yet right-wing media blamed him and the entirety of the Democratic party for Steve Scalise’s shooting anyway. And yet no one on the left blamed Scalise for his own shooting, nor did anyone insinuate that the Republicans probably paid the man who shot Scalise to do so in order to make Democrats look bad.
Twitter was quick to call Trump out on his lies and inciteful rhetoric. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
